Freecycle is an awesome service that connects people giving things away with people looking for stuff they need. The downside is the massive amount of email you get by joining a Freecycle list. Use this filter to focus on stuff you want.

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Lifehacker reader Steve Mould wanted the immediacy of getting item-by-item emails from Freecycle but he didn't want the flood of stuff he wasn't interested in. His solution was to use some filter-fu to cut through the fluff.

All the filtering in this particular case is done in the Subject box. So let's take a look at the subject line of a typical freecycle/freegle email:

[ealingfreecycle] OFFERED: Wardrobe

So you've got the name of the group in square brackets then whether it's offered or wanted and then the Item description.

So what do you actually type in the Subject box in the picture above? Well suppose you were only interested in hearing about bikes, nokias, cameras and office chairs and you've subscribed to 3 groups. Here's what you'd type, brackets and all:

(NameOfGroup1 OR NameOfGroup2 OR NameOfGroup3) AND ((-offered AND -offer) OR (-bike AND -bicycle AND -nokia AND -camera AND -"office chair"))

Replace NameOfGroup1 with the name of the mailing group as it appears in the email subject line. Likewise for NameOfGroup2 and NameOfGroup3.

Check out the full guide at the link below for more examples and tips on filtering multiple Freecycle groups in your area to maximize the chances of finding what you're looking for.